October 14, 2008

Introducing Palmaz Scientific, Inc.

by ssavage

Julio Palmaz, M.D. made his mark on the medical world 20 years ago with the invention of the stent which revolutionized cardiac care, and now more than a million people each year undergo coronary artery stenting to repair clogged arteries. Today, Dr. Palmaz leads a team of scientists and high tech engineers at newly established Palmaz Scientific, Inc. on a mission to create safer and more predictable implantable prosthetic devices. Dr. Palmaz and his colleagues will introduce Palmaz Scientific, a new operating business, and present clinical trial results of the company's first application of its innovative technologies at a satellite meeting of the Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics Conference in Washington, D.C. today.

"The use of stents and other implantable devices in treating cardiac and other diseases has saved lives and advanced medical intervention," said Dr. Palmaz, chairman, co-founder and chief scientist of Palmaz Scientific, Inc. "However, inherent to all coronary implantables currently on the market are the risks of restenosis, stent thrombosis, embolization and the need of antiplatelet medications. By re-engineering the surface of the implants to better accommodate tissue and blood interactions and utilizing high technology processes yielding high purity materials in our all-metal micromesh stents, Palmaz Scientific plans to introduce a new class of stents and other implantable devices for a number of medical applications," he added.

For the past ten years, Dr. Palmaz and his team have researched the biochemical and molecular changes that occur with implants. They discovered that the type of materials used as well as their surface chemistry and configuration play a major role in the body's response to the implant and attendant complications resulting from inadequate healing at the implant site. The Palmaz team developed the technology to manufacture stents, balloons and other devices using physical vapor deposition processing techniques -- similar to those used in microelectronics manufacturing -- to create an all metal, nitinol micromesh covered stent to promote endothelialization. The company has conducted extensive laboratory and preliminary clinical research on its proprietary thin film technology products and currently holds 37 U.S. and foreign patents related to the technology and property, with an additional 157 currently pending.

Steven B. Solomon, co-founder, director and chief executive officer of Palmaz Scientific, said, "The research done thus far indicates that this thin film technology will improve the patient's healing rate and outcome. This not only makes for improved overall results, but reduces the need for repeat procedures and reassures physicians about long term benefits. Our first anticipated market opportunity for this technology will be the SESAME stent for use in coronary artery bypass grafts," he added. "We expect to launch this product in Europe in 2009 and to initiate a larger-scale clinical trial with SESAME in the U.S. soon."

In addition to coronary artery and cardiac applications, Palmaz Scientific expects to develop products for use in renal, carotid, peripheral (upper and lower extremities) as well as non-vascular prosthetics for orthopedic and plastic and reconstructive surgeries.

About Palmaz Scientific, Inc. (www.palmazscientific.com)

Palmaz Scientific has innovated a new platform for implantable prosthetic devices and is armed with an extensive intellectual property portfolio of patented and patent pending thin film metal surface technologies and processing methods. The Company holds 37 patents issued in the United States and internationally, as well as 157 patent applications pending on its technologies including the thin film physical vapor deposition technologies for use in medical implantable devices. With this unique technology, the company believes that it is the first and only company positioned to develop and manufacture a new generation of all metal micromesh covered stents for the cardiovascular market, while also developing other implantable prosthetic devices for the orthopedic and cosmetic implant markets, to fulfill its mission of creating safer and more predictable implantable prosthetic devices for a variety of medical needs. The Company is headquartered in Dallas, Texas and has operations in Fremont, California.